locopr1

Hello,

My mechanic has tried rebuilding the stock carb on a 1979 RX& a couple times without success. he recommended going EFI but doesnt have experience doing the conversion on a rotary.

What EFI Kits are the simplest and easiest to put on a stock engine? engine is fine, only 80K miles. Just want it to run reliably without a bunch of tuning required to get it there. Want to keep stock and have as daily driver or sell it. Have too many cars and wife says some have to go haha. So also want to keep cost down. I looked at the RB Holley carb but for stock engines they are no longer available.

Thanks!

diabolical1

iTrader: (3)

this is the part where i would usually jump right in and encourage you to go with the EFI conversion, however, it doesn't sound like you're totally committed to the car. maybe i'm wrong ....

at any rate, i would say your best course of action would be trying to get your hands on a "known-to-be"-good Nikki and call it a day, or maybe employ the experience of one of our more guru-level Nikki guys and see if they can sort yours out.

EFI is definitely worth doing, but if the car can be gone at the drop of a hat, then it's probably not the best move right now - unless i misunderstood you. at any rate the choice would be yours. you could go Holley-style or Weber-style since you said "simplest and easiest" because those 12A already manifolds exist. you'll need the throttle body, injectors, sensors and of course, a management system to run it all. prices vary, but you could probably put something together for a couple grand, more or less.

Maxwedge

iTrader: (1)

I got a quote from EFI hardware for everything needed to install a Weber-style EFI setup. $2700 got me everything except the ECU, Surge Tank, and time with a Dyno tuner so high 3000's is what I'd be looking at. If it was a DD I'd want it but for a warm-weather driver I stuck with a carb.
If you got a new carb (Holley or Weber) you would need to spend time tuning and modifying it for your car.
I think the used-nikki is the simplest and best idea.

workaholic

I just put a Holley Sniper on my street port. Waiting for new exhaust bits to come in, I'll let you know how it runs when I'm not riddled with exhaust leaks.

locopr1

Hi diabolica1,

yeah I am not 100% commited to car. I have four cars, included two SA's. wife wants me to downsize to 1 or 2.

I want to get car running without spending too much $$$. I dont have the expertise or time to work on it so I am at mercy of my mechanic. I had another friend who is a mechanic who refused to even try to rebuild the Nikki haha....

If I fall in love with it I'll keep, if not i'll sell it. its completely rust free other than a spot on the hood '79 Limited, charcoal grey. interior is typical seat tears and dash tear. I have another white '79 that is my favorite even though it is a base model with no sunroof haha... so the Limited once I get it going would have to really knock my socks off haha

Richard Miller

what is the difference between a Nikki and other four barrel carbs in general construction ? Seems weird that a person in the trade would rebuild an Edelbrock and not touch a Nikki

Maxwedge

iTrader: (1)

There's nothing too different in the circuit operation (idle, main, accel pump,, secondaries). But an aftermarket performance carb like an Eddy or Holley is just those basic functions. A stock carb like the nikki has all kinds of other weirdo components on it specific to our cars.. Eddy is one of the simplest 4 barrels to disassemble, rebuild, tune, etc. The nikki is a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle by comparison.

Benjamin4456

The Nikki itself is a rather simple carb, not much more complicated than any other four-barrel - it's the smog equipment piled on top of it that makes it complicated. OP, as others have already touched on, if you aren't dearly dedicated to the car, an EFI setup is going to cost much more than it is probably worth. It's more than just replacing the carb because you need to redo the fuel system, add a computer, yatta, yatta. Some of the Holley Sniper kits make it pretty straightforward, but it's still a fair chunk of change and a lot of time.

I have a feeling your mechanic is doing a fine job at rebuilding the carb - so long as he can work on carbs competently - and is more so having issues with the smog system messing stuff up. The FSM, Haynes manual, and Chilton's all have testing procedures for the smog equipment to diagnose what is wrong. Since it's a 79 you're lucky as there isn't a whole lot of smog equipment, although there is still some.

Since EFI is in the question, I take it that keeping it stock isn't too important. In that case, the most cost effective option would be stripping the Nikki and calling it a day. Of course that depends on what your mechanic is comfortable with. I'd vote Nikki any day of the week, but I also like to perpetually tinker with things, so take that as you will.

locopr1

Hi,

I would love to keep it stock with a Nikki Carb, just dont know who can rebuild it for me. Would be fine with modifying emissions on NIkki to get it running right as well, but same issue, who can I get locally to do it? I am in Chicago area.